Clint Eastwood's 8 Most Awesome Military and Veteran Characters

Clint Eastwood's 8 Most Awesome Military and Veteran Characters

Few actors play a salty old veteran better than Clint Eastwood. Eastwood was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, but never quite made it over to the Korean Peninsula. He was a swimming instructor at Fort Ord and survived a plane crash where he had to swim to safety.

Four years later, the one-time soldier was on the silver screen, in 1955's “Never Say Goodbye.” Ever since, the veteran's life has been a critical aspect of many of his onscreen characters, of which there have been many.

1. Mitchell Gant, "Firefox"

Clint Eastwood plays Gant, a Vietnam veteran and pilot who's assigned to sneak into the Soviet Union and steal the most advanced fighter aircraft ever built. Part action-adventure, part spy thriller, “Firefox” may not wow you today, but the character of Mitchell Gant is a fun one. He is a former USAF prisoner of war who was held captive in Vietnam, but now, because he speaks Russian (his mother was Russian), he gets to embark on a top-secret spy mission to infiltrate the USSR.

2. Frank Corvin, "Space Cowboys"

“Space Cowboys” doesn't just have Clint Eastwood, it has a digitally young version of Eastwood as Frank Corvin shows his disappointment with the Air Force for abandoning his crew's mission to go into space. After 40 years and the crew much aged, Eastwood's Corvin, along with Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner and Donald Sutherland, get their chance to show off the right stuff. There aren't many movies about the USAF test pilots' glory days, and “Space Cowboys” is a great example.

3. Walt Kowalski, "Gran Torino"

Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who is very content with the way things are, even as the rest of his world is crumbling around him. Kowalski is very much prejudiced against Koreans, long after the war ended. This fact is only highlighted when a Korean family moves in next door, and the youngest son attempts to steal his well-kept 1972 Gran Torino. “Gran Torino” features at least one of Eastwood's most badass lines: "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have f**ked with? That's me."

Awesome.

4. Josey Wales, "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

Josey Wales is a farmer turned Confederate bushwhacker who ends the Civil War on the run from Union soldiers, but Josey Wales wasn't fighting for the Confederacy, not really. He was fighting to avenge the murder of his family by pro-Union militias. With a bounty on his head, Wales is joined by a group of extraordinary adventurers who help Josey Wales on his quest to stay alive, stay free, and escape to Mexico. He gets revenge against the man responsible for his family's death, but his escape is a lot less of a shootout than expected.

Way before that, though, Josey Wales wipes out a whole unit with a Gatling gun.

5. Pvt. Kelly, "Kelly's Heroes"

In the closing days of World War II, Private Kelly – once a Lieutenant Kelly, who ended up court-martialed for a failed infantry attack – gets wind of $16 million in gold bars hiding just behind enemy lines. While his unit is halted near the town of Nancy, Kelly enlists some of his men to go AWOL and make a dash for the gold. They fight their way to the gold against overwhelming odds. When they can't fight anymore, they offer the Germans a cut of the action.

6. Luther Whitney, "Absolute Power"

Luther Whitney is a Korean War veteran who left the military and became one of the world's best and most formidable cat burglars. While robbing the home of a wealthy industrialist, he witnesses the President of the United States attempt to sexually assault the rich man's wife. She fights him off until she's killed by the Secret Service, who attempt to cover up the episode. After being framed for the killing, Luther decides to use his skills, along with evidence he took from the crime scene to re-frame the President.

With Ed Harris, Gene Hackman, Scott Glenn, and Dennis Haysbert, there's so much testosterone in this movie, it might as well be a war film.

7. Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway, "Heartbreak Ridge"

When Gunny Highway stands up to his Major and says "with all due respect, sir, you're beginning to bore the hell out of me" while smoking a cigar, it was the one time I wanted to join the Marine Corps.

8. Harry Callahan, "Dirty Harry"

All badass characters who came before and after are all trying to live up to one character: "Dirty" Harry Callahan. A hard-boiled cop who operates using his own set of rules, Harry Callahan remains cool under fire but gets heated when the bad guys win. Not much is known about Dirty Harry, and you pretty much have to watch the whole series to get a picture of the character. We don't even find out he was a Marine until the second Dirty Harry movie, “Magnum Force,” when we learn Harry didn't finish his 20 years. In the final film, “The Dead Pool,” Harry drinks from a Marine Corps mug.

He had to learn to stay frosty somewhere. 

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